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Today, with Black Friday, the Christmas shopping season officially starts and, among so many products and promotions, it is difficult to find original and careful details to give as a gift. This year we bring you what could be the perfect gift for that friend who appreciates quality products and has a special sensitivity for aesthetics, because EXTREM Puro Extremadura has once again launched a special edition of ceramics as a garnish to its 100% Iberian products that can be purchased only during these dates.
This is a limited collection whose pieces (2 plates and 2 illustrated trays) are hand-painted by Cerámicas Anoru and inspired by the cuisine of chef Toño Pérez (Atrio Relais & Châteaux, three Michelin stars), a passionate of Extremaduran cuisine, a great connoisseur of his environment and its products, and one of the most recognized ambassadors of Extremadura in the rest of Spain and the world.
ART
The chef has synthesized the history of the main influences of the cuisine of Extremadura (pastoral cuisine, monastic cuisine, the recipe book of Alcántara and the cuisine of Alentejo) to narrate them to Mercedes Bellido as inspiration for the drawings that decorate the pieces. From Talavera de la Reina, but a lover of the landscapes and aromas of Extremadura, the illustrator makes nature the main protagonist of many of her works, something very evident in this Christmas collection that reflects in colorful drawings fauna, smells, environment and raw materials of these influences in her third collaboration with Extrem.
So this year she has managed to “give a slightly more intimate twist to the Christmas collaboration,” as the artist herself explains. “We tried to take the narrative we had in the previous collection, which dealt with the origin of the products, and continue the journey to the final goal, which is the dish“, she adds. And in this way she has captured the gastronomic elements of the recipes in a collection that is very “connected with nature, something that is very present in Extremadura’s gastronomy in general and in Extrem specifically”.
PRODUCTS
Bellido’s personal artistic universe and Pérez’s narrative, together with the Iberian product steeped in the authenticity of the land, have given rise to this ceramic series that is available at the brand’s points of sale and that accompanies its most emblematic products in chests:
IBERIAN HAM
The dish included in this box is inspired by pastoral cuisine: simple but intense and clearly marked by the spices of the countryside and traditional preservation methods, such as pickling and curing. The piece accompanies a 100% Iberian acorn-fed ham D.O.P. Dehesa de Extremadura of between 8 and 8.5 kg for 599 €.
IBERIAN PALETTE
In this case it is a tray that worships another type of cuisine: monastic, which, in the words of Toño Pérez, “highlights local and seasonal foods”. In this case, the case includes a 5-5.5 kg acorn-fed 100% Iberian D.O.P. Dehesa de Extremadura shoulder of acorn-fed pork for 215 €.
IBERIAN SAUSAGES
Another dish that accompanies one of Extrem’s mainstays, Iberian acorn-fed sausages. The ceramic piece is inspired by the cuisine of the Portuguese region of Alentejo, which impregnates Extremadura with cod, barnacles and clams, as well as pork, oil and wheat. Of 450g each, the box includes three half-pieces: Iberian acorn-fed chorizo, Iberian acorn-fed salchichón and 100% Iberian acorn-fed loin. All this for 95€.
IBERIAN SLICED PRODUCTS
The last piece of the collection is a tray that reflects, through its key ingredients, the fusion of cultures, influenced especially by the Arab and Jewish, which occurs in the kitchen of the Monastery of Alcántara and that, according to legend, seduced even Napoleon’s soldiers, who stole the recipe book to take it to Paris, where the Duchess of Abrantes popularized it. That is why, if this is true, the ‘nouvelle couisine’ can find part of its origin in the cuisine of Extremadura as a result of this book. In the box, six sliced products for 129€: three packets of 100% Iberian acorn-fed ham D.O.P. Dehesa de Extremadura and three packets of 100% Iberian acorn-fed shoulder D.O. Dehesa de Extremadura.
Four lots of products and four unique pieces decorated with the natural elements that give meaning to each of the four culinary branches of Extremadura that become a way to bring the gastronomy of the region to all tables at Christmas.
